Acids are known to have numerous advantageous properties, but their corrosive properties tend to render them unusable in many common situations where the acid cannot be used safely on an industrial level.
Sulfuric acid was first discovered by an Arabic alchemist of the 8th Century CE. It was further refined by later alchemists, and eventually brought to Europe and developed by the alchemist Albertus Magnus. It was originally known as “oil of vitriol”, “spirit of vitriol”, or often just “vitriol”. At one point, it was even considered to be the Philosopher's Stone. Over the centuries, different methods were used to create Sulfuric Acid. In the early 17th Century CE, Johann Glauber employed steam as a medium for carrying off the sulfur from a burning of sulfur and potassium nitrate. The burning potassium nitrate oxidizes the sulfur to SO2 and as a result of mixing with the steam, it yields sulfuric acid.
Although several advancements in manufacturing have been achieved over the centuries, the nature of sulfuric acid has not changed in over 1200 years.
In recent years, however, sulfuric acid has been neutralized to various degrees using a simple process of reversing the addition of the acid to water. Under normal circumstances, one is always cautioned against adding water to acid, due to the resultant reaction. In fact, the following quote on line (www.wikipedia.org) exemplifies the ingrained historical nature of this recommended methodology: “If water is added to the concentrated sulfuric acid, it can react, boil and spit dangerously. One should always add the acid to the water rather than the water to the acid. The necessity for this safety precaution is due to the relative densities of these two liquids. Water is less dense than sulfuric acid, meaning water will tend to float on top of this acid.” (Italic emphasis added)
Beginning as early as the 1980s, various chemists and inventors have experimented with the nature of the reaction when the safety precaution listed above is not followed. These experiments have lead to interesting results, some even achieving patented formulations. U.S. Pat. No. 6,565,893 to Jones et al., for example, suspends colloidal metals within a neutralized acid compound for use as a disinfectant for swimming pools. These processes, however, have failed to fully explore and utilize the composition, and also use extremely expensive manufacturing methods to achieve their results. Even the process put forth by Cummins in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,989,595 and 6,242,011 do not have the same enhanced manufacturing process involved in the production of this product, and therefore do not have the same capacities as a highly protonated, highly charged, highly conductive solution. Instead, they have focused on holding metals in suspension, or at most, using their methods to create a less effective, more expensive, base composition.
Properties of Sulfuric Acid:
60% of total sulfuric acid production is currently used for the wet method of phosphoric acid production, especially as it is consumed in the phosphate fertilizer industry, and as trisodium phosphate for detergents.
Another large consumer of sulfuric acid is the iron/steelmaking industries. In this application, it is used to remove rust from raw steel billets before it is delivered to automobile manufacturers. Sulfuric acid is also used for making nylon, in petroleum refining to increase octane, in the manufacture of dyes and pigment solutions, and as an electrolyte in lead batteries. Sulfuric acid can also be used as a drying agent, since it so readily reacts with water.
In fact, the conductivity of sulfuric acid is due to a mechanism akin to the Grotthuss mechanism in water, in which proton switching occurs between the H3SO4+ and HSO4− ions.